Thank You
by NoteEmmy
Summary: Atem goes on a long mission to find someone he's not entirely sure exists in the afterlife. But he just has to find out one way or another. COMPLETE


"Do you know where you last saw her?" Asking such a question had a terribly empty feel to it. Atem knew he wasn't likely to get an answer that would help him, but he had to try regardless. And in what felt like years (but who could really tell just how much time was passing in the afterlife) he finally had a small lead. He couldn't let it slip through his fingers. Searching on his own had proved absolutely fruitless; he was starting to get the feeling she could have even been avoiding him.

The young looking man tilted his head skyward, to the always-blue and ever expanding fake sky that surrounded them. Even a day like today was peaceful, a day where the Pharaoh's spirit was buzzing with anxiety and grumpiness. Everyone around could feel it coming off of him in waves. "That woman…" He murmured, more to himself as his hand reached up to scratch at his chin. His eyes closed, capturing the radiant picture of the woman Atem was searching for more clearly.

As the figment smiled in his imagination, so too did he. It was hard not to.

"She was sitting down by a river. I think it looked like the Nile, might have been a little bit wider now that I think about it."

Despite the fact that the man was being a little too minute with his details, Atem appreciated it. If it wasn't the Nile it could have been anything else, and having a good description in a place where people's hopes, dreams, and wishes created the world around them was a very great place to start. He found himself nodding as the man droned on, tense and restless as he was getting with every aspect that made the picture bloom into reality in his own mind.

"Underneath a tree. Every time I go that way she's always either in it or underneath it. Resting, usually, if she's not out playing in the water."

It was then Atem felt a sense of complete unease, a sense that this man often went to go look for the woman he was searching for- just to spy on her. A frown drew on his lips and he took a step back. "Is the bank littered with trees?" Even if he suddenly had distaste for this man, he needed to get all the information out of him that he could.

His head shook. "No, no… just this one tree. Big tall thing. Makes her look so little. So fragile."

Atem cleared his throat, turning rather quickly, causing his cape to flutter around him before settling. "Thanks for your help." And with that, he was off.

A wide river that resembled the Nile and had one gigantic tree sitting in the sand. It was about the best lead he'd had ever since he'd started this. A tree of that size, something that would overshadow anyone, would surely be sticking up in the distance. If he saw one he'd know where to head.

The Pharaoh headed out towards where he knew _his_Nile was. Of course it didn't belong to him, but parts were solely created out of his own memories. They were special parts, but in the end connected to a giant part of an ever reaching Nile that everyone that hailed from Egypt had some say in. That's what made this world so beautiful. It had so many variations of the same place, and wandering into someone's personal space made you get a sense of how they lived, how they loved, and even how they died. They all connected to each other, creating something more beautiful than words could have ever touched upon. His mother and father had certainly told him stories of the peace the afterlife brought, but nothing had ever been as spectacular as feeling it for himself.

It had been days, maybe months now, that Atem had been trekking down the long bank of the Nile. He'd started at his own, feelings and memories of being a child, playing and bathing in its vast, cold waters, drowning him in a sense of safety and warmth. It had been hard to leave them, as it always was, but he was on a mission. From there he wandered into at least twenty other spirit's versions of the river. Wide, short, cold, warm, scalding hot- he loved each one for what it was and what it represented. But none had the big tree that skimmed the sky.

At that point he had started questioning the legitimacy of this person's spirit being here. Surely when he'd settled himself and thought of all the people he could meet, she was not in that list. It made little sense for her to be here, at least to him.

"Kisara."

He'd spoken the name to his Priest, who seemed completely sure she was not here. Atem had never been satisfied with just one word so- even if the Priest probably would have looked for her too. Or had he given up, as Atem felt was more than necessary now. Kisara would have had to been a special case. Her soul was not truly part of this world. It had been sealed, and it was protecting Kaiba now.

So why did he feel that she was here somewhere?

Why did he feel it where his Priest did not?

Every last question in his mind seemed to die completely as a sense of dread overwhelmed him when he finally saw the expanding green leaves of a tree touching the clouds. His heart was pounding. He finally found a tree that fit the description, and now he couldn't move. It took him a long few moments to catch his breath, to ease his heart, and to force his feet to take slow steps closer and closer towards that gigantic tree.

With every step closer he felt like it might fall on him. His head tilted further and further back the more he came towards it. He couldn't shake this sense of nervousness as he looked up.

Kisara was nowhere to be seen amongst its thousands of branches. Nowhere in the foliage could he see the girl with the white hair and pale skin. He circled around the thick trunk; neither there was she. It created a deep sense of disappointment sided with a feeling of ease. So the Priest had been right. She wasn't here.

He raised his head to a cooling breeze, as if the Gods themselves were trying to let him down easy from this discovery. When he opened his eyes again, that's when he saw her.

It seemed like she was flying, rather than falling through the sky; long white hair whipping behind her. But she was not a dragon now, just a woman. And she was tearing through the sky at an unreasonable speed. It was then Atem realized she must have jumped from the top branch of the tree, and she was headed straight for the river.

Rather than feel worried for her, he leaned against the tree, watching her in a silent sense of wonder. So she was here after all, and she seemed to find a very grand way to enjoy her time. She plunged deep into the Nile, disappearing underneath its now darkening depths. If this had been anywhere else Atem might have gone in after her, for fear of her drowning. But she was fine, this much he knew.

When she popped along the surface that anxiety came back tenfold.

Kisara _was_here. Now what was he supposed to do?

The woman swam to the beach before stepping out of the water, wringing out her hair and coming back to sit underneath the tree. She stopped when she realized she had a visitor, only being able to see the shadow from just around the trunk. A smile appeared on her lips as she approached.

"Do you want me to show you how to get to the top?" She asked cheerfully. Usually kids would wander through here; they were the most frequent anyway. And they always wanted to fly like Kisara could. Fly through the sky and into the river. It was the best feeling- and the closest she could get to feeling free, even in this place.

When she finally got all the way around she was struck with a sense of breathlessness. The man who stood there was not extremely familiar, but she knew enough about him. She knew about his affiliations, as well, with Egypt … most of all with the Priest. And with…

"You." It was all she could think to say. She didn't actually know his name, which felt mighty embarrassing. She wasn't even sure what she should do. Bow? Take the knee?

"Kisara." He answered, not as easily as he made it seem.

Her blue eyes widened. He even knew who she was. She couldn't explain what she was feeling, a hand reaching up to clutch at her chest. "…Pharaoh." That would suffice, right? That's what he was, after all.

"Just Atem is fine."

Well, at least now she knew the man to thank for watching over the two closest pieces of her heart. Just thinking about it made her smile brightly. "Atem." She answered with an enthusiastic nod. "-ah, how did you find me?" She'd tried for so long to stay away from the more populated parts of the afterlife for a reason. It seemed in the end, if the Pharaoh put his mind to something, he would get it.

Atem shifted, just a tad uncomfortably, folding his arms over his chest. "It was a lost search for a very long time." At this Kisara felt a swell of pride. She'd managed to at least elude others for a good while on her own merits. He continued, "I had to follow up on many hints and clues, most misleading. But in the end I was led here by a man who seems to like to watch you. I'd … watch out for him." Not that truly terrible people ended up here, but the way he talked about her made him uncomfortable. If the Priest had heard Atem was sure that man would be excluded from here immediately.

Kisara didn't seem too bothered by it, instead continuing to smile. "Is that so?" Not bothered at all, just instead a little bewildered that Atem would put in so much effort to come find her. "All that trouble… for me?" She even had to check because she just couldn't believe she was worth that much time.

"Of course for you." He answered confidently with a grin; as if they'd been long friends over life and there was no way he could spend a minute in this place without her. It didn't feel that way, but the way he articulated it, the way he was looking at her, she almost felt like such a thing could be true.

Her hands laced together in front of her and she bowed her head. "Why?" The only thing she could think to ask.

A lapse of silence moved between them. For a long moment the only thing that could be heard was the rustling of the leaves as a warm breeze blew through the top of the tree. Kisara let it go on for as long as Atem wanted it to. She wasn't going to rush him.

Finally he raised his eyes to hers, even if she wasn't looking at him just then. "I wanted to thank you."

A hand went over her mouth as a surprised sound left her- more of a squeak than anything else. The Pharaoh? Thanking her? "Why?" She asked yet again, gaping at him now.

He shifted anxiously, arms folding even tighter. He didn't drop her gaze now that he had it, though. "For everything." It seemed simple enough, and with it he could even leave. But she deserved more than that (and after everything he put into finding her he certainly wasn't going to let that be it). He drew in a breath, thankful that she didn't seem to be in a rush to hear the rest, before releasing it and trying to calm his own heart.

"Everything." He repeated softly, a warm smile overtaking him without his consent. As he looked at her, he could almost feel everything the Priest and Kaiba felt when she was around. "For taking such good care of Seto, and of Kaiba. For using all your strength to save Seto and I from the clutches of his father. For being so strong in the face of everything else." Especially when he had nearly lost everything because the lack of his own. They might not have spoken to each other, but when the Blue Eyes prevailed and saved Seto, saved the both of them- back then, and even when he had been without his memories, he felt her.

Kisara's smile had vanished through Atem's small speech. Her hands clutched tighter together. For a moment she didn't seem happy at all. In just another tears were streaming from her eyes and she was smiling even with all the crying she was suddenly doing. "You don't… you don't have to thank me… for things like that…" Seto and Kaiba had always appreciated her. Loved her. And she always felt it. But for someone else to recognize her too?

There was no better feeling.

Before Atem could answer her, she'd lunged forward to wrap her arms around him. "Thank you." She whispered. "For saying so."

It was awkward and stilted and it took him a moment but finally his arms wrapped around her and he just held her tight. There wasn't much he could give her, thanks being just about all he could do- but this… this was nice too.


End file.
